1. Field of the Invention
One or more embodiments of the invention relates generally to instruments and accessories for measuring data. More particularly, the invention relates to a universal smart wireless device that can utilize a smart phone, mobile devices or computer as a platform that can display and communicate with a group of sensors or probes in a way to provide compatibility with any sensor and can drive any number of sensors.
2. Description of Prior Art and Related Information
The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
Instruments are the devices that are specifically designed and constructed for sensing and measuring physical variables that are crucial in industrial operations, environmental, commercial and medical applications, research and development, and our daily lives. They are an integral part of modern science as well as of engineering and commerce. In recent years, significant progress has been made in instruments and instrumentation systems. The performance of measuring and monitoring instruments has improved considerably.
Analog and digital or combinations of the two are the three kinds of measuring instruments. The analog instruments are used to indicate the magnitude of the quantity in the form of pointer movement. The digital instruments specify the quantity in digital formats, and they can be read easily, are more accurate than the analog multi-meters, reducing the interpolation and reading errors. Digital instruments offer significant advantages over analog devices. The auto-polarity function of digital devices prevents various problems. Parallax error, which occurs when the pointer of an analog instrument is viewed from a different angle and users tend to see a different value, are eliminated as well. They are free from the wear and shock failures as a result of a lack of moving parts. With the advancement of technology of integrated circuits, digital instruments are becoming increasingly compact and accurate.
Most of the modern instruments are digital. They are designed for measuring various physical quantities in an object. Such instruments consist of the following functional components: (1) Data acquisition is the process of sampling signals that measure real world physical conditions and converting the resulting samples into digital numeric values that can be manipulated by a microprocessor. The components of data acquisition systems include: sensors, to convert physical parameters to electrical signals; signal conditioning circuitry, to convert sensor signals into a form that can be converted to digital values; analog-to-digital converters, to convert conditioned sensor signals to digital values. It normally operates on conditioned signals, that is, signals which have already been filtered and amplified by analog circuits. (2) Storage and communication components, application-specific input/output (I/O) components. In digital instrumentation system, the transmission of data between devices is realized relatively easily by using serial or parallel transmission techniques. (3) Ancillaries, such as displays and power supplies and application specific software.
Traditional hardware-centered instrumentation systems are made up of multiple stand-alone instruments that are interconnected to carry out a determined measurement or control an operation. They have fixed vendor-defined functionality and their components that comprise the instruments are also fixed and permanently associated with each other. All software and measurement circuitry packaged onto the traditional instrument are provided with a finite list of fixed-functionality using the instrument front panel.
Traditional hardware-centered instrumentation systems all tend to be box-shaped objects with a control panel and a display. Stand-alone electronic instruments are very powerful, expensive, very large and cumbersome. They also required a lot of power, and often have excessive amounts of features that are rarely used. Users generally cannot extend or customize them. The knobs and buttons on the instrument, the built-in circuitry, and the functions available to the user, are all typically specific to the nature of the instrument.
Virtual instruments represent a fundamental shift from traditional hardware-centered instrumentation systems to software-centered systems that exploit the computing power, productivity, display, and connectivity capabilities of popular desktop computers and workstations. Functionality of all these stand-alone instruments can be implemented in a digital environment by using computers, plug-in data-acquisition boards, and support software implementing the functions of the system. The plug-in data acquisition boards enable the interface of analog signals to the computer, and the software allows programming of the computer to look and function as an instrument. Virtual instrumentation is combination of hardware and the software which is completely customizable as per the need. The user-defined hardware components defined for the measurement are virtual instruments that replace the traditional instruments and are better so far as cost and compactness are factors of concern. It delivers instrumentation with the rapid adaptability required for today's concept, product and process design, development and delivery. With virtual instrumentation, the user-defined instruments required to keep up with the world's demand can be created. The major advantage of virtual instrumentation is its flexibility; changing function simply requires modification of supporting software. However, the same change in a traditional system may require adding or substituting a stand-alone instrument, which is more difficult and expensive. Virtual instruments also offer advantages in displaying and storing information. Computer display can show more colors and allow users to quick change the format of displaying the data that is received by instrument. Virtual displays can be programmed to resemble familiar instrument panel components, including buttons and dials. Computers also have more mass storage than stand-alone instruments do. Virtual instruments offer more flexibility in data handling.
Instrument interoperability and connectivity are the ability of devices to communicate and work with other instruments manufactured by different vendors in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those instruments. Traditional Instruments including traditional hardware-centered instrumentations and software centered virtual instrumentations are specifically designed, constructed and refined to perform one or more specific tasks. When manufacturers develop these instruments, they naturally seek ways to differentiate their products from those of competitors. Most of the instruments on the market come with variety of connectivity technologies and do not have the built-in firmware and software to support the connectivity and interoperability of instruments. Different instruments provided by different vendors cannot be interoperated and interchanged. Even instruments within in the same class from different vendors are not compatible. In 1998, National Instruments, along with other companies including Agilent, Advantest, Anritsu, Ascor, BAE systems, Boeing, Ericsson, Genrad, Honeywell, IFR, Keithley, Lecroy, Nokia, Northrop Grumman, Racal, Ratheon, Rohde & Schwarz, Smiths, Tektronix, Teradyne, and Wavetek formed the interchangeable virtual machine foundation. Interchangeable Virtual Instruments (IVI) is a revolutionary standard for instrument driver software technology. It attempts to standardize the commands to which specific kinds of instruments respond and also makes it possible to interchange instruments in a test system without drastically revising the application software and maximize interchangeability across instrument brands. IVI plug & play drivers which were considered the industry-standard instrument drivers for many years have been largely replaced by IVI drivers. Unfortunately, the instrument driver did simplify software development and maintenance, it didn't address hardware obsolescence as each manufacturer had their own and none were compatible. Current applications are limited to large and expensive test and measurement instruments.
Instrument scalability provides further optimization of instrumentation design and operation. The first attempt to address the instrument scalability is the wireless sensor network.
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a network formed by a large number of spatially dispersed and dedicated sensor nodes where each node is equipped with sensors for detecting or monitoring physical or environmental conditions and organizing the collected data at a central location. Every sensor node is equipped with sensor, a transducer, microcomputer, transceiver and power source. The transducer generates electrical signals based on sensed physical effects and condition. The microcomputer processes and stores the sensor output. The transceiver receives commands from a central computer and transmits data to that computer. The power for each sensor node is derived from a battery. Each sensor node is capable of only a limited amount of processing. But when coordinated with the information from a large number of other nodes, they have the ability to measure a given physical environment in great detail. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) which combine sensing, computation, and communication into a single tiny device are regarded as a revolutionary information gathering method to build the information and communication system and greatly improve the reliability and efficiency of infrastructure systems. Compared with the wired solution, WSNs feature easier deployment and better flexibility of devices. With the rapid technological development of sensors, WSNs will become the key technology for Internet of Things. Recent technological improvements have made the deployment of small, inexpensive, low-power, distributed devices, which are capable of local processing and wireless communication, a reality. In spite of the diverse applications, sensor networks pose a number of unique technical challenges. Power consumption is a central design consideration for wireless sensor networks whether they are powered using batteries or energy harvesters. Achieving a long lifetime of a sensor network requires low power hardware and algorithms. The current hardware cost of each individual sensor unit is still very high in order of $100 per unit.
Sensor networks provide a promising mechanism for data gathering and dissemination from the physical world, sensor data must be delivered within time constraints so that appropriate actions can be performed. Most of sensor network protocols either ignore real-time or simply attempt to process as fast as possible and hope that this speed is sufficient to meet requirements. It is important to develop real-time protocols for maintaining a desired delivery speed across the sensor network. Sensor networks may interact with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments, it is critical that the information provided by the sensors be authenticated and the integrity verified. It is imperative that these security concerns be addressed from the beginning of the system design. The major obstacles to the implementation of wireless sensor network is wireless network programming. Wireless sensor networks are inherently more unreliable than traditional distributed systems. They are built to adapt to change dynamics and node and link errors such that the network continue to serve its intended purpose even when parts of network have failed. Traditional programming technologies rely on operating systems to provide abstraction for processing, I/O, networking, and user interaction hardware. When applying such a model to programming networked embedded systems, such as a sensor network, the application programmers need to explicitly deal with message passing, even synchronization, interrupt handling, sensor reading, unreliable communication channels, conflicts, latency, irregular arrival of messages, simultaneous events and the like. The complexity of designing and implementing this kind of application requires the professional programmers and non-conventional paradigms for protocol design. Wireless sensor network applications are still at early stages of development in the industry.
A universal instrument is a versatile device which combines many individual instrument functions, sensors and probes in a single unit. It has a primary purpose but also incorporate other instrument functionalities as well. One instrument could do many different measurements and controls and substitutes for many other instruments. It utilizes a variety of probes to connect to the device for a wide variety of process measurement and control. One of the popular examples of the universal instruments which have a similar concept but a few functions is the multi meter, which measures voltage, current, and resistance.
A universal instrument offers superior sensor or probe compatibility, versatility, interoperability, connectivity and scalability. Theoretically, it is feasible to design a universal instrument which is compatible with all sensors or probes on the market and capable of monitoring and controlling any combination of sensors or probes. Despite the undoubted usefulness of the universal instruments, one of the major obstacles that prevent the universal instruments from being adopted by end users is the cost. The cost of a $10 traditional instrument which incorporates the functions of a $1000 instrument may have to increase its cost to the order of $1000. The end user who just needs a $10 traditional instrument for his applications certainly does not have the motivation to spend $1000 for functions he does not need. Additional functionality always needs to be balanced against cost. The knobs and buttons on the instrument, the built-in circuitry, and the functions available to the user, all of these are specific to the nature of the instrument make them very expensive and hard to adapt in the universal instruments.
Smart phones have enabled a quantum leap in the use of mobile phones for daily life. A smart phone is a mobile phone with an advanced mobile operating system which combines features of a personal computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or hand held use. They typically combine the features of a cell phone with those of other popular mobile devices, such as personal digital assistant, camera, email, media player and GPS navigation unit. Most smart phones can access the Internet, have a touchscreen user interface, and instantaneously share information and events through the internet. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS are becoming ubiquitous in smartphones. Smartphones and tablets have been considered recreational devices for communicating, playing games and streaming videos, but they are also one of the most powerful tools engineers use for designing, validating, and producing products. These ubiquitous smartphones perform much better than instrumentation in many fields. Because of their network connectivity, smartphones and tablets are great tools for remotely viewing measurements; their small size and processing power also make them effective for portable measurements. The ubiquity of wireless connectivity combined with increasing functionality and speed of connected devices and mobile networks will further drive consumer demand for more cost effective smartphone based instruments. The rapid adoption of smartphones continues, representing greater than 50 percent of mobile handsets in the U.S. currently with further penetration gains anticipated. According to Gartner Research, worldwide smartphone sales are expected to reach 1.5 billion units in 2016.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a universal smart device that has the potential to be compatible with any sensor or any number of sensors, where the smart device can be converted into any device as long as the corresponding sensor is used.